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A book about ‘Cinderfella’ shows us how books for girls fall short.

You’re probably fairly very well known the story of Cinderella, her fairy godmother, her evil stepmother, and the handsome prince.

It’s a classic narrative about dreaming big, with the message that you, too, can escape tough situations with a little bit of magical( and a bit of conventional beauty ). Overall, it’s a fairly standard fairy tale in which the best thing a woman can hope for must therefore be hand-picked by a man for a life of “happily ever after.”

As a narrative, it’s fine , but it’s not exactly inspirational.

To get a better idea of what I’m talking about, let’s imagine that the roles were reversed — the histories of Cinderfella.

That’s what Rebel Girls did in a 2017 video where they ask, “What if Cinderella were a guy? ”

What follows is a humorous story about a boy named Cinderfella, his evil stepfather and ugly stepbrethren, a fairy godfather, a glass loafer, and a noble princess to pluck our dear protagonist out of obscurity and into wedded bliss.

It’s a funny reimagining of a literary classic, but it’s probably not something we’d read to little boys in hopes of inspiring them to do great things.( Fortunately, there are a lot of stories aimed at helping boys dream big .)

Rebel Girls founders Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo “ve noticed that” the same couldn’t be said about girls’ stories.

So they decided to change things up in a big way.

Favilli and Cavallo released “Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, ” a book they wish they’d had when they were children.

“Recently, I realized that not a single tale I read growing up featured a girl who took her fate in her hands and made something on her own without the help of a prince, two brothers, or a mouse, ” said Favilli in the group’s launching video. “By the time daughters reach elementary school, they already have less confidence than boys. Why is that? They say that ‘If you can see it, you can be it’ — but what happens when “youve never” see someone like you making the headlines? “